[b]Bungie;[/b] Though you do not care, because you are a large company and I am a small consumer, and you have a large product and I am only one unit, and you provide a service and I only hope to enjoy it - I have something to say. In brief forays into the forum community, I've been called a 'desticle' for defending the original game and what it was, I've been called overly negative for critiquing it. I've made fun of the dubious story telling, and also dove deep into what was there to create original characters and stories for people to read which highlight in one way or another little known facts from out there in the loreverse. Still, I am aware that I, and every other fan of your work, don't really matter on an individual level. I'm okay with that. When I have defended this game - though it did not matter because the sales would be what they are and people who want to play it will play and people who don't won't - it was usually on the basis that the game was 'pretty fun' and [i]look at all of these things D1 sets up[/i]. Complex stories which lead the audience to question whether or not the Darkness is a physical thing, look upon the Exo Stranger, a character with enough lines to be counted on one hand, is [b]somehow extremely essential to the story as a whole[/b], to ponder the existence and motives of the Vex, respect the power of the Queen of the Reef, doubt the Speaker, but doubt his detractors as well - the depth and intrigue is what I would introduce to anyone who isn't on the fence. Yes, D1 sucked at displaying this depth. We know. But just [b]look[/b], look at what they tried to do, look at what they're going to do. Look at the hints in the name of the game itself, the dance of 'causal' and 'acausal' and 'paracausal' actions. Look how relatable Oryx is, beyond just being a big ugly space monster. The Hive have been following the Darkness! They've seen it do things, they saw what it did to us, they've been riding around in its wake for so long! They're our enemy, but there are hints that not all of them fully embrace being the Dark's janitors. They could help - Taox could help! There's [b][i]SO MUCH[/i][/b]. ...that's what I would have said. I'd have said it excitedly and, though I know I do not matter, I've excited a few other people as well. Convinced people who didn't even play D1 to jump into D2 because hell, [i]I got robbed by buying D1 but now they've got their shit together and look at the stories they can explore[/i]. And I really, truly believed that would happen. Maybe he misspoke. Maybe things are being taken out of context. But we do want some resolution to who the Exo Stranger was. There is a fixation on that character because - who was she talking to off screen? If that single character she spoke to wasn't significant, then that means there are more than one. So who are they? Who is she with? Why did she help us? Future War cult? Praedyth? Any of it? Clearly she didn't have time to explain, but [i]you do[/i] and if she'll mysteriously never be seen or heard from again then that might even be a proper send-off if it weren't so clear that she'd be around. The only consistent narrative thread in D1, just... shelved? Mara Sov, 'shelved'? It took a lot of energy and enthusiasm to feel as though something was gotten out of D1's story, and - though I am one consumer and I do not matter - we single consumers who decided to dig into the lore are almost inevitably going to feel like this is a big fond f--- Well I can't even say what it would be, or I'll be banned from the forums for swearing. But you get the point. Bungie. We don't know what D2 will be like until we see it. I know. It could be great, I want it to be amazing. But if you've truly taken all those possibly amazing and deep story threads and replaced them with as many snarky lines from Cayde "Buck" Fillion as you can pack into a few cutscenes, then you'll have finally shaken this single meaningless consumer off of your back. Yes yes, I know comments section. Those who remain will be glad those like me finally gave up and bounced. I guess what I'm trying to say, Bungie, is that [i]I didn't want to[/i]. I still don't want to. And I want to stop being given reasons to. Yes, it's just a game. It's not essential to my life which, despite what some comments to this will suggest, is going rather well. It is a hobby though. It's a way I choose to spend my free time. The message I am receiving is that, well, even if I found something which seemed really cool and unique to extract out of this game as a passtime... I shouldn't have. I should have spent my time elsewhere. Is that really the message you want to send to each, individually meaningless, consumer? Sincerely, A Concerned Fan (AKA Ricochet.) EDIT: I'm not doing multiple edits. Thanks for taking the time to respond - and I wanted to note that someone suggested that maybe... [spoiler]Bungie just doesn't have time to explain why they don't have time to explain.[/spoiler] After a day of this post, conclusion follows: [spoiler]CONCLUSION: Given the votes on the poll, the responses etc... I have reached a conclusion. No matter how I slice it, even combining the activity of several similar posts, [i]there is literally no way Bungie would care anyway[/i]. I can see represented maybe 1,500 players, and that's being terribly optimistic. There's no reason Bungie would care about that opinions of that few people, even if they all agreed one direction or another. With that in mind - yeah, their decisions make perfect sense. Some people really liked the lore as it was being set up, but [i]that's simply not a large enough number for giving a shit about them to make sense[/i]. This includes the lore video content producers on Youtube, things like Ishtar Collective, it just doesn't add up. Maybe a few hundred thousand of their units total actually cared about that? They're better served making something entertaining for everyone else - the new player, and the player who never cared to look outside of the game for what was going on. Purely factually, as a numbers game, this makes absolute perfect sense. Three years ago, someone responded to a post I'd made reminding me that since I clearly bought the game, as well as a lot of other people, there was a 0% chance of a f^ck being given. [b]That person was correct.[/b][/spoiler]